[vigsom]

Introduction

I’ve been holding a pre-owned 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara AT for over 7 years now. The odo is close to 97,000km and the suspension is stock, except for the doughnut bushes on the lower arms. Of all the cars I’ve held this far, this is the one I’ve held for the longest time; plus I'm the owner that has held this particular car for the longest time. That is purely because

a) the car has been with me through many ups and downs
b) the car has proven its mettle on several occasions, especially in big deluges
c) the car has been a reliable performer throughout except for replacement of ageing parts
d) I've got used to the car and the car has got used to me
e) I have the service manual handy and it is of immense help in diagnosis of issues
f) it's Made in Japan

Yes, despite the Japan tag, this car has seen uncommon issues eg. a torque converter clutch input cable getting clipped by mice, ABS hydraulic unit leak, which have been documented in moderator @Samurai’s thread on the Grand Vitara

1. TCC cable clipped by mice (The First Grand Vitara on Team-BHP).
2. ABS Leak (The First Grand Vitara on Team-BHP).

I have also experienced the sub fuel gauge wiring being clipped by mice and it took a logical approach to get to the issue and solve it; documented here (Suzuki Grand Vitara | Solving a weird fuel gauge issue).

[vigsom]

Experiences with the Grand Vitara this far

My only complaint with this car has been its fuel efficiency, given that this is a 2.0L petrol engine, full time 4WD with the default driving mode being 4H, and options to move to 4HL and 4LL via a switch. However, the car's rock solid construction, ability to hold up well with time, and a great driving experience more than makes up for the below average fuel efficiency. I've typically managed between 7 and 9.5 kmpl in City and a max. of 12.5 kmpl on the highway at a max of 100kmph.

The automatic transmission lever allows slotting the car in any gear - D, 3, 2, L. I've used this feature to downshift to 3 and 2 for overtaking maneuvers. Gear#2 is the best as here is where the car takes off like a rocket.

Maintenance issues this far

On the maintenance front, I have seen a host of issues cropping up post Jan-2018 (when the car was a little over 10 years). All o fthese were solved with some effort.

1. Steering wobble - arrested by adjusting the rack end nut
2. ABS Hydraulic Unit leak - took nine months to detect and I managed to source a hydraulic unit from another Grand Vitara which had a dead engine
3. Rear brake shoes making noise - the shoes had life in them but I decided to import the parts and have the complete rear brake set up viz. shoes, wheel cylinders replaced with SGP parts
4. Tappet cover gasket and the four spark plug tubes O-rings leaking - SGP parts imported and replaced
5. Drive belt - replaced with a 5PK1650 SGP belt imported from the UAE

[vigsom]

Maintenance in 2021 - at age 13

Inspection of the HVAC Unit - documented here (Aircons! Demystifying the car air-conditioning system, Part 2).

Radiator and AC Condenser Fan noise

Both the fans were making noise; although not severe, I decided to have them removed and check on what was wrong. The condenser and radiator fans sit next to each other in one assembly. To remove this without disturbing the radiator hoses,

1. remove the power steering reservoir and place it suitably without disconnecting the hoses
2. remove the coolant expansion tank with the hose from the radiator neck and place it upright at a safe location such that coolant doesn't spill
3. remove the air filter inlet duct and place it carefully somewhere
4. remove the condenser and radiator fan assembly by decoupling the two couplers and removing the bolts holding the assembly to the radiator

On opening the fan motors, i observed that the brushes were wearing out, there was severe carbon build up inside the fan motor housing plus the bearing in the Condenser fan motor was making noise. Both the fan motors were serviced and refitted.

Fan assembly out of position - note that the radiator top hose hasn't been disturbed


Note the automatic transmission oil cooler hoses at the bottom of the radiator


Twin Fan assembly - the fan that sits lower is the condenser fan


Condenser fan motor open - note the dirty commutator


Fan motor bearing - 608Z


Fan motors overhauled and ready for refitment

[vigsom]

Maintenance in 2021 (Contd.)

Idler pulley bearing

I had replaced the idler pulley bearing with an SKF metal shielded bearing in end-2018. While that ran smooth until early this year, I noticed a weird behaviour - a terrible squealing noise would develop if the car was driven over, say, 30kms, and the noise was traced to this bearing. Spray some WD40 on the bearing and it would immediately go silent. I had a spare OE NSK 6005DU bearing that came in handy and the defective idler pulley bearing was replaced with this; no noise thereafter. I then realised that the ZZ bearing isn't the right type for this application.

The 6005ZZ bearing that was installed in 2018


6005ZZ bearing useless after just 2.5 years



The original idler pulley bearing that came with the car


Idler pulley with a new NSK 6005 DU bearing


Other inspection

OE Brake pads were found in satisfactory shape after 36,000km. They seem to have at least another 20,000km of useful life left.


Driveshaft boots on the front and rear were inspected; all found intact. Shown here is a sample

[vigsom]

Maintenance in 2021 (Contd.)

Oct-2021 - Aircon compressor clutch not engaging

In all my years of experience, I've always known AC compressor clutch electromagnets to first weaken gradually and then fail. Weakening would mean the compressor not engaging after a few minutes of operation since the magnet would go weak and not have the energy to engage the compressor clutch.

In the case of my Grand Vitara, I observed that after approx. 20 days of shutdown, when I connected the battery negative back, started the car, and after sometime, started the aircon, the compressor would not engage. Electrical supply to the clutch was on, but the magnet wouldn't energise. In a normal case, this would require recovery of refrigerant, removal of the compressor, fitment of a new clutch magnet, and then the usual leak test, evacuation, and refrigerant filling. In my case, the job was accomplished without removal of the compressor.

1. The radiator-condenser fan assembly was removed
2. Coolant was drained out and the radiator lower hose disconnected from the thermostat elbow

Removal of the lower hose helped open the compressor mounting bolts and lift it up to a convenient height to be able to remove the compressor clutch disc, clutch pulley and the magnet without removing the refrigerant charge. The operation was a little tricky, but folks working on the car were skilled to adopt the right procedure to ensure that there was no damage to the compressor hoses in the process.

Drive belt removed


Fan assembly removed to create more working room


Compressor clutch magnet being removed


Compressor clutch disc - in good shape after 14 years


Compressor clutch assembly removed



Back in 2014, I' d got the coolant drained and filled in fresh Toyota Genuine Super Long Life red coolant concentrate that I'd procured; diluted that 1: 2.5 with distilled water and that is what was doing duty in the car all these years. However, the replacement in 2014 left some old coolant back in the block as the old coolant wasn't flushed out totally. Despite that, even after seven years, the coolant was in top shape, retaining its characteristic oily properties. There was zero residue or particles in the coolant that was collected. You'd see a brownish green tint to the coolant and that is because some of the old green stuff remained in the block.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOBqREqfiI

Although the same coolant was fit to be reused, I thought it appropriate to change the coolant. This time around, I ensured that the system was flushed thrice with distilled water, and even collected a sample of the contents after the third flush. Post that added fresh brew viz. Toyota Genuine Super Long Life Pink coolant, which now comes as a factory 50-50 pre-mix and is ready to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voW-DYaRDRY

Coolant Expansion tank - before cleaning the inside and outside


Coolant Expansion tank - after cleaning


New coolant - before level top off



The compressor was fitted back with a new electromagnet, compressor refitted in position, fan assembly, coolant tank, and Power Steering fluid reservoir refixed. The coolant system was filled with fresh coolant, air-bled and post that, the Grand Vitara was back to old ways.

Expenses in 2021

1. Idler pulley bearing INR 150
2. Radiator and condenser fan motors overhaul INR 2,100
3. AC Compressor electromagnet INR 2,000
4. Toyota Genuine Coolant 6 liters INR 1,800
5. Brake discs skimming INR 1,400
5. Labour INR 2,400

Total INR 9,850

What's changed from 2014 to now?

The love for the car remains intact, despite the many hiccups in 2018. What has changed is the pricing of SGP spare parts, that is now inching close to 3 series territory. The good news, however, is that lower priced options are available on all parts, which wasn't the case earlier on line in India.

For quick reference, here's a link to Samurai's Maruti's Grand Vitara Long-Term Ownership Review.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Samurai]

Hey, wish I had such concise report of 14 history in one page. Mine is spread over 14 years. Yup, my Grand Vitara is 2 weeks away from completing 14 years, and as a single owner car. I had never thought I would keep a car for 14 years, let alone 10years. And that too as my primary family car. And it will be completing 150,000kms this month. Just bought my 5 set of tyres too.

The last service bill was ₹2680 since I didn't need to change oil.

[vigsom]

The subwoofer in the Grand Vitara also started sputtering badly sometime in June this year. This is an active sub placed under the co-driver seat. I decided to see what was wrong, and if anything could be done to breathe some life into it. If not, I'd have to substitute this with an aftermarket underseat subwoofer OR add an amplifier and a subwoofer in the boot OR live without the thump.

1. Removed the three bolts holding the sub enclosure to the floor

View of the sub enclosure from behind the front co-driver seat


2. Separated the enclosure bracket from the enclosure back plate

Top view


Bottom view


Mounting frame removed


3. Noted that the subwoofer is a 4" dual voice coil set up, and that there was some corrosion on one side of the circuit board

Sub with the PCB


4. Removed the subwoofer and tested the voice coils - one was working but sputtering while the other was dead

The 4" sub


5. Located a speaker service point in my city (such weird places are generally tucked away in some galli); found one such place called Japan speaker service and was told he was in the business for many years
6. He took 4 days but could rectify only one voice coil that was sputtering but couldn't do anything about the second one. I wasn't able to find a similar sized subwoofer with a dual voice coil anywhere. SVC subs of 4" dia were available, but again, they were taller than this Sanyo

Sub after repair


7. Came back, cleaned the PCB with IPA, applied thermal paste on the heat sink, soldered some of the old points on the PCB again just to eliminate the possibility of dry solder
8. Installed the sub back, and found that it was sputtering again inside the enclosure, while it worked fine when tested separately
9. Switched the leads - installed the sub to have the working voice coil face the other two leads, provided some foam padding to eliminate some inadvertent vibrations, and it worked perfectly


Sub enclosure back in position with the wiring coupler connection waiting to be done


Ever since I got the car, I've always had to play around with the sub enclosure gain to prevent sputtering. This time around, it worked absolutely fine even with just one voice coil working. The set up works perfect to provide just the needed thump to complete the soundstage. Speakers in the Grand Vitara are still stock and are working perfect - yet another proof of quality of components. In my view, this is the best sounding 2000s Japanese UV car audio set up after the Mitsubishi Outlander's famed Rockford Fosgate set up.

All I spent on this exercise was a mere ₹100, and ended the project with some satisfaction of being able to bring a dead subwoofer back to life.

[kadanaJ]

I'm really impressed. 14 years and it seems you're still happy with the vehicle. I hope Suzuki is able to launch more premium cars in India.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my takeaway from your report is that if one wants a very long-lasting reliable vehicle, and a Toyota is out of budget, Suzuki quality comes really close?

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by kadanaJ

if one wants a very long-lasting reliable vehicle, and a Toyota is out of budget, Suzuki quality comes really close?

Thank You, @kadanaJ. Japanese Suzukis, like the CBU Grand Vitara, come very close to Toyota quality. Suzukis built in India are still very reliable, but have gradually gone flimsy. I remember how reasonably built my Esteem was, and the next car - a 2003 Versa was way lower down the order w.r.t build.

[vigsom]

Introduction

Continuing from where I'd left off last year, this is an update on how the car has held up with time, and what prompted me to perform a major inspection of the car around the time she turned 15.

Coolant leak

A few days before the car was to turn 15, I noticed something weird after I'd reversed the car into the parking slot - saw a trail of liquid and could immediately make out it was leaking coolant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkfZh4t9_s

Where was the coolant leaking from?

Keeping the engine running, I noticed that the coolant was dripping from the shield under the transmission, and I knew for sure that it was coming from somewhere between the engine and the firewall, dropping onto the transmission and onto the shield below. I switched the engine off, and was surprised to see the leak stop after, say, 10 minutes. This meant that the leak was on only when the system was pressurized, and not otherwise. Notice red/pink coolant? Yours truly is probably the first bhpian and possibly the first reported person globally to switch from the IAT green coolant to Toyota genuine long life HOAT coolant on a Suzuki; this was just after I got the car in 2014.

Coolant leaking onto the shield under the transmission and then onto the floor

[vigsom]

How big was the leak?

The next morning, when the engine had cooled down, I noticed that the coolant expansion tank had lost approx. 200ml of coolant - this was way lower than what that stained area below the car seemed to suggest. I couldn't spot the location of the leak since it was happening only when the engine was at operating temperature. The same behaviour was exhibited on my next routine drive - coolant noticed to be leaking dropwise when I reversed into the bay. Same approx. 200ml of coolant depleted when inspected the following morning; no sign of where the leak was.

Finding out the point of leak

Even in daylight, the parking wasn't really well lit, so I decided to take the car out into the sunlight to check what was wrong - with the engine at operating temperature, checked the radiator bottom, top and bottom hoses, heater inlet and outlet hoses, and eventually discovered that the leak was somewhere behind the engine around where the EGR valve is positioned - this is a crazy location with little to no access between the engine and the firewall. To the eye, it appeared that the outlet pipe from the heater core back to the thermostat upstream was leaking and showed some corrosive deposits too.

Corrosive deposits seen to the rear top end of the engine - red arrow marked on pic#3. Also note the EGR valve just above the suspected leaky point






This pipe had the main connection to the heater return hose, and a branch off onto which the throttle body coolant return hose was connected. When traced, this pipe was seen to originate from the heater core outlet at the rear end of the engine and go around the cylinder head, all the way to the thermostat side which was close to the front of the car - Boy! I haven't seen such a long coolant bypass pipe in any car all my life!



So the circulation would be as follows:

A: Until coolant reaches the set temperature of the thermostat:

A1 :Cylinder Head rear side - water outlet cap - heater core - heater outlet pipe - thermostat upstream back to water pump suction

A2: Cylinder Head rear side - engine water outlet pipe to radiator inlet - radiator - thermostat (closed)

B: After thermostat opens (thermostats used to be set at 82 degrees.C)

A1 and A2 would continue but with thermostat open, circulation through the radiator would also start. The fan would kick in when the engine coolant temperature sensor would reach its set point, fan would run for a few seconds and would then shut off. This cycle would continue.

Coolant circuit in the Grand Vitara - image courtesy boodmo. The heater outlet pipe is marked in red

[vigsom]

Plan of action

The next step was to determine what to replace - the heater return pipe is unique to this car and there was no point in having it opened, then realize that it needed to be replaced and then wait for the part. I decided instead that it was worthwhile ordering the part, get it in hand, and then go ahead with the job. I'd in the meanwhile inspected the other hoses too and found that the radiator inlet hose had bulged a bit (although the rubber was still supple). Ordered the heater outlet pipe and the radiator inlet hose, and these were delivered in less than 6 days.

Heater outlet pipe - a rather long one, attached via an O-ring to the thermostat housing


Radiator inlet hose - SGP




A surprise finding

It was a daunting task to get to open this pipe; there are bolts holding this pipe to the cylinder head, and getting to these bolts was quite a challenge given the very poor access. The following were removed to create access

1. EGR valve, located just above the pipe at the rear end
2. heat shield just above the exhaust manifold
3. engine water outlet (radiator inlet) pipe disconnected from the rear end of the cylinder head - this again is fitted using an O-ring and runs all the way to the front to the radiator
4. engine outlet water cap (also housing the engine ECT sensor) also feeding the heater core inlet hose

When all this was opened, it was discovered that the heater inlet hose joint at the engine outlet water cap had developed two small holes - these would expand and release coolant when the system would reach operating temperature (and some pressure). On a side note, similar punctures in the heater core hoses of a 2016 XUV500 ended up in the car losing coolant, and the engine requiring a rebuild because the coolant loss and the rise in engine coolant temperature went unnoticed.

Engine water outlet cap with heater inlet hose - one of the two holes marked in red


Heater outlet pipe - in reasonable shape even after 15 years. The outer surface of the pipe was oily because of oil vapours/oil seepage from the tappet cover gasket until 2018 (tappet cover gasket was replaced with SGP in end-2018)

[vigsom]

More findings, and additions to the list of jobs

With the pipe being declared not guilty, and the culprit aka heater inlet hose being booked, the next task was to find a hose that could be used as the heater inlet hose. Here, I'd like to thank the technician Sameer profusely, as he took the hose to the MGP distributor and got an MGP hose for a Swift diesel that would work. We might assume that any hose could be used, but the bends in the hoses make it difficult to find quick-fixes or jugaads. The bend in the replacement hose should be just right, else flow of coolant to the particular path could get pinched. I was prepared to bypass the heater core should a suitable hose not be immediately available, but that was avoided.

Meanwhile, while casually glancing at the bottom frame, I noticed some oil stains at just below the power steering rack left side boot. On closer inspection, the boot had come off (clip gone), and the steering rack showed traces of oil. I could have easily fixed the boot back and carried on, but decided that a leak will only worsen with time, and it was now time to give the car some well-deserved treatment. Hence decided to go ahead with replacing the seals in the power steering rack. The technicians had to say that the power steering rack left side seal has suffered damage only because the left side boot's clip had gone loose, causing the boot to come off when the steering was being turned left and thus causing the seal to be exposed to the external environment (heat, dust, water splashes) which I tended to agree with. I never realized that the boot's clip had gone loose despite visually inspecting the car every week all these years.

Next, I took up a cosmetic job - to get the alloy wheels refinished. The car sported one stock alloy on the trunk lid but four EVO chrome alloys on the main four wheels. Three of the four alloys had shown signs of wear even when I got the car in 2014, and I kept cleaning them and keeping them in good shape. Decided to get them re-finished as well, to make the 15th birthday a grand one!

Heater inlet hose - MGP


Engine coolant outlet pipe to radiator inlet - again a rather long one


Radiator inlet pipe inside - absolutely clean with zero deposits


Power steering rack with the left side boot off


Power steering rack


Final list of jobs

1. Heater outlet pipe replacement (with two o-rings too)
2. Heater inlet hose replacement
3. Engine water outlet cap cleaning
4. Radiator inlet (top) hose replacement
5. Throttle body outlet hose replacement
6. Power steering rack seals replacement
7. Suspension and steering components inspection
8. Alloy wheels re-finish
9. Transfer case, front and rear differential oils inspection and front diff. oil replacement
10. EGR valve inspection and cleaning, if required

[vigsom]

Suspension, steering and transmission components inspection

Here is a summary of all that was inspected

1. Driveshaft boots - check (no tear)
2. Struts - check
3. Rear shock absorbers - check
4. Front and rear arms - rear check, front needs monitoring
5. All rubber components on the suspension - check
6. Tie rod ends -check
7. Ball joints - check
8. Lower arm ball joints - hmm, okay but needs monitoring
9. Stabiliser link rods - check
10. Automatic Transmission oil - check
11. Diff oils - front and rear were absolutely fine, however, as planned, the front diff oil was replaced.

Front left driveshaft


Front right driveshaft


Rear left driveshaft


Rear right driveshaft - can you see me burrowed inside the wheel well?


Front differential oil - still intact after over 8 years but decided to have it replaced




Lower Arm - Left


Lower Arm - Right


Left Lower Arm removed - old but still doing fine


Lower arm bush - the doughnut bush was changed in end-2018 and is showing initial signs of wear. I expect the lower arms to require change in two years


Front Left


Front Right


Rear left


Rear right


Stabilizer bar bracket - this was removed to pull the power steering assembly out


Tie rod end - left


Tie rod end - right


Parts replaced